


Always With You

by admiralandrea



Series: Sentinel fusion [1]
Category: NCIS: Los Angeles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Sentinels & Guides, Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:28:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24715339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/admiralandrea/pseuds/admiralandrea
Summary: The OSP team search for a missing Lt. Commander with the aid of Callen's Sentinel senses
Relationships: G Callen/Sam Hanna
Series: Sentinel fusion [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1834867
Comments: 2
Kudos: 47





	Always With You

**Author's Note:**

> I've not tagged this with The Sentinel as although it's a Sentinels are known 'verse none of the characters from the show appear and I've changed things slightly to suit my purposes.

Sentinel G Callen strode confidently into the Ops centre followed by his partner, Guide Sam Hanna, ignoring the fact that he was still in sweaty work-out clothes.

“All right Eric, what’s so urgent you had to interrupt our training time?”

“Is that what you kids are calling it now?” Detective Deeks asked with a smirk from his place next to the light table in the room.

Callen ignored him with the ease of long practice. “Eric?”

“Missing person,” Eric Beale said quickly, gesturing with his tablet to the big screen where a Navy ID was displayed.

Callen raised his eyebrows but it was Sam who spoke. “Isn’t that a bit outside our purview?”

“Usually yes,” Nell Jones agreed. The intelligence analyst rose from her seat to join their tech operator next to the big screen. “But this missing person is a Lt. Commander at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam who is in L.A. for a combination vacation and business trip.”

“Jay Nelson is an Intelligence Specialist who was due to meet with several companies that are bidding on a contract with the Navy,” Eric took over the briefing again smoothly. “He was supposed to attend a dinner last night with several of the interested parties, but failed to attend. He also hasn’t shown up for any of the meetings he had arranged for today.”

“What about his cell phone or laptop?” Agent Kensi Blye asked from her position next to her partner.

Nell shook her head. “No activity on either one since yesterday afternoon or on his credit cards.”

“All right,” Callen said. “You two, keep on that and any social media accounts. You know the drill.” He turned from Nell to Kensi. “You two, start looking into all the companies he was meeting with, profiles on the individuals involved, find out anything you can from Nelson’s team about his work as well.”

As Callen turned towards the door, followed by Sam, Deeks spoke up. “What about you two?”

“Is his address on our phones?” Sam asked Eric, who nodded.

“He was renting a bungalow in Wilshire,” Nell added.

“That’s where we’ll be as soon as we’re cleaned up,” Callen said. 

*

In the locker room, Sam crowded Callen up against a locker, making him hum in surprise and pleasure. “What’s up?” Callen asked.

“Other than me?” Sam asked back, pressing against Callen so he could feel Sam’s hard cock.

Callen licked his lips and leaned forward a little, pressing his nose against Sam’s arm. “Mm, love the way you smell.” He inhaled deeply, then pressed his lips to Sam’s firm biceps.

“Sentinel,” Sam rumbled, amused and aroused.

Callen moved back a little. “What got you going?” he asked again.

“You know I love it when you get bossy like that,” Sam told him.

Callen smirked; he did know. He bit gently at Sam’s biceps through his shirt. “You get me going when you smell so good,” he mumbled.

Sam groaned and reached down to palm Callen’s cock which was just as hard as his own. They tilted their heads and slid into a kiss easily, as Sam teased Callen through the soft jersey of his workout shorts. 

It didn’t take long for Callen to be on the edge just from Sam’s teasing hand and hot kisses. He moaned into his Guide’s mouth as he fell over into an intense orgasm, letting Sam hold him up as his cock pulsed until he groaned when he was done.

Sam groaned himself, as he looked at Callen, who leaned back against the wall behind him, spent and disheveled. Callen looked back for a minute, then slid to his knees, earning another groan from Sam. He knew exactly what it did to his Guide to see his Sentinel submissive to him like this.

Callen peeled the fabric of Sam’s shorts off his cock and immediately swallowed it down. They might not be going to an active crime scene, but they did still need to get moving soon. He didn’t mess around, sucking hard until Sam was filling his mouth with come, groaning loudly as he did so.

Satisfied, Callen pushed back to his feet and allowed Sam to pull him into an enthusiastic kiss. He broke it reluctantly to say, “We really need to get going.”

Sam growled but nodded. “Tonight Sentinel,” he said and Callen grinned at him.

“Case permitting,” he agreed and turned for the lockers.

*

When they were clean and dressed again, they headed for the Challenger.

“Oh Mr Callen!” The familiar voice of their boss, Operations Manager Hetty Lang, halted them in their tracks. 

Callen turned to see Hetty stood by the entrance to the bullpen. She waved at him and he nodded. 

Sam’s hand land briefly on his shoulder. “I’ll wait for you at the car G.”

Callen breathed in hard through his nose and as Sam’s footsteps headed for the door, he headed for Hetty.

“What is it Hetty?” he asked, once he was close enough to be able to speak normally.

She smiled at him. “How are things Sentinel Callen?” she asked.

“Fine Hetty,” he said automatically, confused by the question and her mode of address.

“No problems with your senses?”

He frowned at that. “Why would there be?”

“Just making sure you’re well,” she assured him.

Callen turned up his senses slightly as he studied her, but couldn’t get anything from them. Hetty’s resting heart rate was as low as ever and nothing about her suggested deception or any sort of problem.

“I’ve not had a problem for weeks,” he finally said. “Sam takes good care of me.”

That earned him an even wider smile. “I’m glad to hear that dear,” she told him and now he was really confused. Why would she use an endearment when they were on the clock.

“All right then, I should get going,” he gestured back towards the door, where Sam waited outside.

Hetty nodded agreement. “Of course Mr Callen, do let me know if you find anything at the Lt. Commander’s house.”

“Sure,” Callen said and turned and walked away, completely confused by the whole conversation.

*

“So what did Hetty want?”

Callen smiled to himself at the question, before turning to Sam. “Congratulations,” he said with a smirk.

“G?” Confused Sam was cute, though Callen wasn’t dumb enough to tell him that.

“You lasted oh,” he made a show of leaning over to check the Challenger’s odometer. “Five miles, before asking that question.”

Sam growled at him, so Callen smirked and settled back in his seat. Then he shrugged. “She didn’t want anything in particular, just checking in.”

“Really?” Sam sounded skeptical.

“No, I’m lying just to mess with your head,” Callen told him.

Sam didn’t look away from the road, but Callen could still see the eye roll. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you Sam, it’s Hetty. When does anything ever make sense with her?”

“Well just remember to be careful,” Sam warned him.

Callen snorted. “You’ll be right there the whole time Guide,” he put emphasis on the title. “There’s no chance of me being anything but careful.”

At that Sam did look over long enough to give him an incredulous stare. “This is you G. Trouble is your middle name.”

Callen chuckled, though it was forced. “As far as I know, trouble could be my first name.”

“Doesn’t start with a ‘g’,” Sam retorted quickly and at that, Callen’ chuckle was more genuine.

“Yeah okay, I promise to be careful,” he agreed.

Sam nodded. “Good.” And with that the subject was closed, much to Callen’s relief. 

*

Lt. Commander Nelson’s place was a bust. Even with his sense turned up, Callen detected nothing out of the ordinary. There was no cellphone, which wasn’t unexpected as Nelson had clearly gone out voluntarily, but they did find his laptop, so that was bagged to take back to Eric.

Once that was done, Sam and Callen headed to the boat shed to catch up with Kensi and Deeks, who were interviewing the representatives of the various firms that Nelson had been due to meet with the night before.

“Anything?” Sam asked, as they stood around the table.

Kensi shook her head. “I know we’re not Sentinels, but I don’t get any sense that any of them are lying or hiding anything from us.”

Deeks nodded agreement. “They all seem genuinely confused by Nelson’s no show.”

“Any of them you want us to talk to?” Sam asked.

Callen studied the monitor, which showed the four remaining witnesses seated together in the interrogation room. He leaned closer, trying to work out what was bothering him.

“G? G!” Sam’s insistent voice got his attention and Callen looked up into the concerned faces of the rest of the team.

“We’ll talk to her,” he said, pointing to the sole woman in the room.

Sam still looked concerned, but he brushed it aside. “I wasn’t zoning,” he said impatiently.

“If you say so G.”

“Do you want us to bring her upstairs?” Deeks asked.

Callen nodded. “Please. But don’t let her know she’s going to be spoken to by a Sentinel.”

“Of course,” Kensi said and she went to fetch the woman, while Callen headed up the stairs to the second room they used for interviews or interrogations when necessary, Sam close behind.

As Sam checked in with Ops, making sure they were ready to monitor the interview, Callen pulled out his cell to read the file on their witness. Dr Marcia Jackson was head of R & D at Engstrom Engineering, who were based in L.A. 

Callen was confused as to her presence at the meetings that Nelson was attending. He was an Intelligence specialist and supposed to be looking into proposed software upgrades for Navy systems. There was no reason for an engineering company to be involved in those discussions, making Dr. Jackson’s presence a red flag.

He extended his hearing and listened to Kensi offering refreshments and apologizing for inconveniencing Dr. Jackson. The doctor sounded calm and relaxed as she refused a drink and assured Kensi she was happy to help. 

“You ready G?” Sam asked.

Callen turned his head and nodded at Sam, who had a serious expression. “Ops?” he asked.

“Ready and waiting,” Sam assured him.

Moments later, the door opened and Kensi ushered Dr. Jackson into the room. “Dr. Jackson, these are Agents Callen and Hanna,” she introduced them as she guided the doctor to the seat opposite Callen.

“Dr. Jackson, thank you for your time today,” Callen said to her, not offering a hand to shake.

As she settled into her chair, Dr. Jackson gave him a smooth, practiced smile. “Agent Callen?” she asked and off his nod, continued. “As I said to your Agent Blye, I’m happy to help any way I can to find Jay.” 

Callen noted the use of the Lt. Commander’s first name. “You know him well?” he asked. He’d dialed up his senses to help him get a good read on the doctor as he questioned her.

“We met a few months ago at an engineering symposium in Las Vegas,” Dr. Jackson explained easily. “We hit it off straight away and had dinner that night.” Her blush was convincing as she carried on. “We saw each other a few more times over the course of the symposium and kept in touch after it finished.”

Callen couldn’t detect any deception in what she’d said. “And this week?” he asked.

“Jay let me know he was visiting L.A. for work and asked if I was interested in meeting up again.”

“So you weren’t involved in his business meetings?”

Dr. Jackson blushed a little again. “I was attending as his date. It wasn’t strictly uh, legal, I guess. But the dinner was more of a meet and greet, getting to know you thing so Jay said there would be no harm in me attending.”

Callen nodded; he still wasn’t getting any hint of deception from the doctor and he didn’t think she was a good enough actress to fake the blushes either. “So you saw him yesterday, when he arrived in L.A.?”

“That’s right,” Dr. Jackson agreed. “He got into LAX early in the morning, so we met for lunch and then,” she paused and this time the blush was deeper, before she went on. “We went back to my place.”

“You don’t need to go into details,” Callen reassured her. “Did he stay with you the rest of the day?”

Dr. Jackson shook her head. “He had some business emails to deal with he said and that needed to be done securely on his laptop, so he left to go back to the house he was renting late afternoon. We agreed to meet up at the restaurant where the dinner was being held because it was at a mid-point between my house and where he was staying.” 

“Did you have any further contact with Lt. Commander Nelson that afternoon?”

“Just a text to say he was at the house and wished he’d been able to stay with me instead of having to work, plus he reiterated our plans for the evening and that he was looking forward to seeing me at dinner.”

Sam spoke for the first time. “Would you be willing to let us see those messages?”

Dr. Jackson looked across at him. “If you think it will help, then of course,” she agreed and reached into the small purse she’d brought with her. She passed Callen a smartphone that looked top of the range. “I’d be grateful if I could have the phone back before I leave,” she added. “I do need it for work, although there’s nothing on there that requires security clearance.”

“Of course,” Sam nodded. “I’ll just be a minute.”

Callen waited till he left the room. “Is there anything else you can tell us that might help Dr. Jackson?”

Her head shake was firm and her expression frustrated. “I wish there was,” she told him. “I got to the restaurant just before 7pm and met the other people that were attending. We were in a private dining room. When Jay didn’t show up after fifteen minutes, I tried calling and texting him, but got no reply.”

“And did you know anyone else there?”

“No. I barely spoke to them. They all took it in turns calling Jay as well and when none of us could get hold of him, we decided to call the nearest hospitals and the police, in case there’d been an accident. But nothing had been reported and the police said when the Uber he booked got to the address, there was no one there.”

“Alright Dr. Jackson, thank you for your time. I’ll just go see if my partner is done with your phone, if you don’t mind waiting here?” Callen asked.

She nodded agreement and Callen headed downstairs to find Sam. His partner was standing next to the big screen talking to Eric.

“You about done?” Callen asked as he walked over.

Sam looked up. “Nearly,” he said.

“When you’re done, she’s free to go,” Callen told him. “Kensi and Deeks?”

Sam shook his head. “The rest of their interviews were a bust, so they were heading back to Ops.”

“All right, I’ll be outside getting some air.”

Sam gave him a concerned look at that, but Callen just gave a subtle nod towards the screen, where Eric was still visible, albeit distracted as he worked on his tablet. Sam’s return nod was equally subtle and Callen smiled briefly before heading out the double doors and past the boat that was next to the exit.

It wasn’t long before Sam came out to join him. “Dr. Jackson’s on her way home,” he said. “I gave her a business card, in case she hears something or Nelson gets in touch with her.”

“Your card?” Callen asked, as he turned to study his partner.

Sam smirked. “No, the switchboard.”

Callen nodded. “Her phone?” 

“Contained exactly what she said it would. No more, no less. What about you?”

Callen sighed, leaning on the railing in front of him. “I didn’t detect anything from her,” he admitted. “No deception, no enhanced senses, no indication that she wasn’t exactly who and what she said she was.”

“You almost seem disappointed.”

Callen shrugged. “She pinged my senses, but I don’t know why. So I’m mostly frustrated.”

“Well we should head back to Ops,” Sam told him. “Eric said they found a private CCTV camera nearby and was waiting for the footage to upload. By the time we get there, it should be ready.” 

“Yeah okay,” Callen agreed. 

Sam reached out to take his hand. “Hey, we’ll figure it out,” he said. “We always do.”

Callen couldn’t help a smile at that. His partner was always the optimistic one. He linked their fingers together and they stayed like that for the walk back to the car.

*

Back in Ops, they found Eric and Nell in the bullpen with Kensi and Deeks, all of them clustered around Eric’s tablet and laughing about something.

“What’s going on?” Callen growled, not impressed by what he was seeing.

Sam’s “G,” was quiet but firm, Callen ignored him though.

The rest of the team looked up startled and Eric fumbled the tablet, only Nell’s quick grab saving him from dropping it altogether.

“Callen!” Kensi was the first to speak. “We were just about to review the CCTV footage.”

“And in the meantime decided you had nothing better to do than watch cat videos?” he asked, having caught a glimpse on the tablet when it had nearly fallen.

“Mr Callen,” Hetty’s voice was stern and the rest of the team all jumped again. Callen had sensed her coming though and didn’t react.

He half-turned to include her in the conversation. “We’re supposed to be investigating the disappearance of a high ranking Naval Intelligence Specialist, not surfing the web,” he said firmly.

“Well, now that we’re all here, perhaps Mr Beale can show us the video?” Hetty suggested.

Eric stammered out a yes and quickly fiddled with the tablet. A moment later, the CCTV started playing on the monitor and they all moved to where they could see it clearly.

The footage was dark but clear. “That’s Lt. Commander Nelson’s house,” Nell commented, pointing it out.

As they watched, a car stopped outside the house and a figure emerged, climbing into the passenger side, before the car set off again.

“Thought the girlfriend said Uber didn’t pick him up?” Deeks asked, looking between Sam and Callen.

Callen stared back at him. “Did you follow up in your spare time or were you too busy surfing cat videos?”

There were several indrawn breaths at that, but Hetty didn’t step in, so Callen carried on. “Perhaps you could do that now, while Eric works on enhancing the video and running a Kaleidoscope search?” 

He turned to Nell. “Did you finish your analysis of the cellphone records?” he asked. Off her head shake he continued, “I expect you’ll get on with that then.”

Finally, he turned to his partner. “We’ll work on verifying the rest of Dr. Jackson’s story.”

Sam nodded agreement and Callen turned to Hetty with a raised eyebrow. “Anything else?”

“No Mr Callen, I believe you have everything well in hand,” she told him and he smirked at her.

A moment later, they all scattered back to their respective work stations to get on with the tasks they’d been assigned.

*

A while later, Callen looked up with an exasperated sigh. He hadn’t found anything remotely suspicious in any of the records relating to Dr. Jackson; her story checked out completely. He noticed he was alone in the bullpen as he tidied the pages of the file back into their folder. He’d been vaguely aware of Hetty sending Kensi and Deeks out to pick up lunch, which she’d ordered for them, but wasn’t sure where his partner had gone.

With another sigh, Callen decided to head to the firing range. Shooting holes in paper targets was a good way to blow off steam when he got frustrated with a case and asking Sam to fuck him wasn’t an option. Sure, he could always request that they sequester themselves in the Sentinel safe room on the premises, but that would just raise all sorts of questions with Hetty that Callen preferred to avoid. Especially after their weird little conversation that morning.

When he got to the armory, Callen grabbed a few boxes of bullets before heading into the firing range and getting set up. He dialed down his hearing as well as putting on the ear defenders, but dialed up his sight to enhance his accuracy. Once he was ready, he started to shoot steadily, working through a box and half of ammunition before the sound of the door opening behind him alerted him to Sam’s arrival.

Callen took off the ear defenders and dialed his hearing back up to his normal level, then reached for the box of ammunition to start reloading his gun again. Sam came up behind him, but didn’t say anything, just pressed the button to bring the target back down towards them.

Callen inhaled his partner’s baby powder scent and smiled to himself. He didn’t know why that was how Sam smelled to him, there was no baby powder anywhere in their house, but it was comforting nonetheless.

“Hm,” Sam finally broke the silence as he studied the target. “Not bad.”

Callen snorted at that, but didn’t say anything, just finished reloading his gun and set it down on the ledge in front of him.

“We saved you some lunch,” Sam told him, as he shifted to lean against the lane divider.

“Not hungry,” Callen said lightly. Sam was staring at him, so Callen turned to see him better. “What?”

Sam raised his eyebrows. “You know what G.”

Callen blew out a breath and shook his head. “I’ve got nothing,” he admitted. “Dr. Jackson’s story checks out completely, top to toe. Nothing even the slightest bit hinky about it.”

Sam snorted at his use of the word ‘hinky’, but Callen ignored him. “I don’t know why she pinged my senses so hard, but she did.”

“Well if blowing holes in targets didn’t help you find enlightenment, maybe a more traditional form of meditation might help?”

Callen frowned. He was no fan of meditation, even if he could admit that it had helped him on occasion when his senses were particularly bothering him.

“It doesn’t have to be here,” Sam added, as an extra inducement and Callen groaned internally. Sam knew how much he disliked using the Sentinel facilities at OSP, so suggesting they go somewhere else was a bit of a low blow. 

Before he could reply, Sam’s text alert went off and he dug out his phone from his pocket. After a moment, he showed the screen to Callen.

“Looks like meditation will have to wait,” Callen said as he read Eric’s message that he’d found the car they’d seen on the footage from outside Nelson’s house.

Sam pocketed the phone again. “Later G,” he said and Callen nodded agreement.

He picked up his gun and holstered it, before quickly tidying up the range and returning the box of ammunition he’d partly used. Hopefully this lead would get them somewhere on the case and closer to finding their missing Intel Specialist.

*

Eric’s lead had brought them to a house in Chatsworth, down a quiet residential street. There were no traffic cams nearby, but they had monitored those closest and the car had not returned past either one since Eric had found it going into the street.

One camera had finally gotten them a clear photo of the driver, showing them that it was a woman and Eric was now running it through facial recognition using every database he could access. The car itself was a white BMW without plates, but Eric had another search running anyway, checking for any cars of the same make and model that might have been reported stolen in the last few weeks.

Deeks was sent on a brief walk around the street, to identify where the BMW was parked if possible and to check for any personal security systems that they could access.

“Found a couple of private cameras,” he announced when he slipped back into the front seat of the Audi. “The BMW is about four houses down,” he pointed in the right direction.

“On it,” Eric announced on comms.

Sam glanced over at Callen who nodded back at his partner. Now that they knew which house was their target, he could use his senses to try and find out who was in there. Callen closed his eyes so that he could concentrate on his hearing. Sam was so close that Callen could smell him and his partner added a hand on his arm to give him another sense to ground on while he sent his hearing out.

“Alright G, just relax and you can do this,” Sam murmured to him.

The rest of the car was quiet as Callen worked and he gradually worked his way past the familiar sounds of the rest of the team. He opened his eyes again once he had tuned them out, so that he could look down the street to the target house, allowing him to piggyback hearing on sight.

After a minute, he shook his head and withdrew, dialing back both senses. “No good,” he said, frustrated. “Too far away and without a sight line into the house it won’t work.”

“What do you want to do?” Sam asked.

Callen considered their options. “We’ll go in on foot,” he decided. 

“I have plans,” Nell chimed in on comms. “Sending them to you now. Layout of the street as well as the target house.”

Kensi passed back a tablet already showing the street, with their house highlighted. Callen and Sam studied it together for a minute.

“We’ll go round the back,” Sam decided. He pointed to a spot on the map. “There’s an alley down there that looks like it’s service access for garbage trucks. We can use that for cover if we need to.”

Callen nodded agreement and a moment later, they were on their way down the street. No one was around as they slipped down the alley towards their target.

“Here,” Callen decided, stopping at the neighboring house. He had a clear line of sight to the property and there were recycling bins to give them some cover. 

Sam crowded up close to him again, hand on his shoulder this time as Callen turned his hearing on the house once more. The plans Nell had sent them showed that the house only had two stories, with no basement. He focussed on the upper story, thinking it more likely that Nelson would be in a bedroom than in one of the downstairs rooms, as it was open plan.

“Two heartbeats,” he murmured to Sam after a moment. “Both in the back bedroom. One sounds sluggish.”

“Drugged?” Sam’s question was a whisper of breath across his ear, making Callen shiver at the sensation.

He concentrated again. “More likely that than sleeping,” he decided. 

As he continued to listen, the other heartbeat moved. “Our driver is on the move,” he said. “Coming downstairs.”

“Withdraw?” Sam asked.

Callen considered, then shook his head. “Not yet.”

As he continued to focus on the house, he was able to see the woman come into view at the kitchen window. 

“What’s she doing?” Sam whispered.

Callen continued to watch the woman. “Getting a glass of ice,” he reported, a bit confused.

“Odd,” Sam commented and Callen had to agree, as he watched her disappear from his sight again.

As he continued to listen, he heard the woman go back upstairs again. There were other sounds he couldn’t readily identify, then he heard a female voice.

‘Let’s see what we can do with these,’ he heard her say and a rattling noise which he guessed must be the glass of ice cubes.

There was then a series of wordless grunts that nevertheless gave Callen the impression the person making them was unhappy. The deeper tone suggested it was their missing Lt. Commander.

“I think she’s got Nelson restrained and gagged,” he told Sam. “This could be our best time to move in, while she’s distracted by whatever game she’s playing.”

Sam nodded. “Do you want the others?”

Callen considered. “Where are the plans of the house?”

Sam held out his phone with the plans displayed. “No other entrance to the bedroom, no en suite bathroom for her to hide in. It’s a risk going in anyway, because she might have weapons, but I think Kensi and Deeks are better off waiting outside until we have the situation under control. Nowhere for them to go anyway.”

“I agree,” Sam told him. “I’ll tell them to standby and have Eric alert Rescue to have medics en route as well.”

Callen nodded and Sam quickly dialed Kensi to update her. Once he was done, he and Callen quietly made their way to the rear of the house. Sam made quick work of picking the lock on the back door and they then crept through the lower floor to the stairs.

A series of gestures and glances was enough to get the partners creeping slowly up the stairs, hugging the wall and treading as lightly as possible to avoid the risk of creaking or other noises that would alert their target to their presence.

The door they wanted was at the top of the stairs and Callen ghosted past it on light feet, so that they could take up positions either side. The door was ajar and he was able to peer through the gap to see their kidnapper stood over the bed. He gestured to Sam, indicating he had eyes on her and Nelson, who was naked, tied to the bed and gagged.

Sam’s nod and gesture indicated he was ready to go through the door first, gun at the ready. Callen’s return nod showed he was poised to act as back up, his own gun firmly in hand.

Sam counted down from three on his fingers, before shoving the door open hard enough for it bang against the wall and swing back towards him. Callen was behind him and caught it on the rebound.

“Federal Agents, don’t move!” Sam barked out.

The woman shrieked and whirled towards them, dropping the glass of ice Callen had seen her fetch from the kitchen. 

“Don’t shoot, please don’t shoot!” she cried out, holding up her hands. “What’s going on, who are you?”

Sam took another step into the room. “Move away from the bed.”

The woman did as she was told and Sam quickly grabbed her and swung her around, expertly cuffing her hands behind her back. Once Callen was satisfied she was secure, he holstered his gun and hurried forward to the bed.

“Let me get you out of these,” he said, reaching for the ropes.

As he made quick work of cutting through the knots, Callen heard Sam on comms summoning the rest of the team and telling them to bring the medics for Nelson. Callen moved to Nelson’s feet, while the man himself pulled his gag free and used the sheet to cover his groin.

Moments later, Kensi and Deeks were leading two medics into the room and Sam handed their mystery woman over to them.

“Take her to the boat shed,” he told them. “You know the drill.”

Kensi grabbed the woman’s arm. “With pleasure,” she said, dragging her away, Deeks close behind.

Callen had taken a few steps away from the bed, to give Nelson privacy while the medics checked him over.

“Good job,” he told his partner with a smile.

“You too,” Sam smiled back and for a few moments they basked in a job well done.

*

The next morning Sam and Callen headed to the hospital to speak to Lt. Commander Nelson. He was expected to be released later in the day, but they didn’t want to delay taking a statement from him, as their suspect had yet to say a word and her identity remained a mystery.

Dr. Jackson was with the Lt. Commander when Sam and Callen walked into his hospital room. It was private, thanks to Hetty, in deference to his rank and position. 

“Agents!” Dr. Jackson looked up at them as they paused inside the door.

“We could come back?” Callen suggested.

She shook her head and came over to them. “No, this is fine. I just wanted to thank you for finding and rescuing Jay.”

She reached out and grabbed Callen’s hand before he could react. Fortunately his senses were mostly dialed down thanks to the location, but he still got a jolt when she touched him. The doctor was oblivious, but of course his partner wasn’t, thanks to their bond. 

“G?” His subvocal question was accompanied by a wave of concern.

Callen sent back a pulse of calm and reassurance, his response to Dr. Jackson working just as well to answer his partner. “No problem,” he told her with his best charming smile. “I’m just glad he’s okay.”

She smiled brilliantly at him, finally releasing his hand, to Callen’s relief, then grabbed Sam’s hand instead. Callen looked over to find Nelson watching them with an indulgent smile.

“How are you Lt. Commander?” Callen asked, as he approached the bed.

“Much better, thank you Agent Callen,” he said. “The doctors assure me I should be fine to leave the hospital this afternoon.”

Dr. Jackson left, promising to bring back coffee in a little while, so they could speak to Nelson in private. Sam and Callen took the two seats next to the bed and Nelson adjusted his bed to a raised position.

“I’m afraid I don’t have much useful to tell you,” he said before Sam or Callen could even ask a question. 

Sam smiled reassuringly. “Let us worry about that,” he replied. “If you could just run through what you do remember, we’d appreciate it.”

Nelson nodded agreement. “I was due to go to a dinner with some prospective contractors,” he explained. “I’d spent time with Marcia in the afternoon, but went back to the house I was renting to answer some work emails before getting ready to go out. I had an Uber booked to collect me as I don’t have a rental car while I’m in Los Angeles.”

“Any particular reason for that?” Callen interrupted him to ask.

Nelson shook his head. “I didn’t want the hassle of trying to drive around in L.A. traffic,” he said. “And having someone else drive meant I could spend the journeys working. I’m not really familiar with the city, so I was happy to let someone else deal with getting me around.” 

“And the driver matched the information you were given on Uber?” Sam asked.

“Yeah, which is why I’m so confused by all this,” Nelson said. “Did I get hacked?”

Sam shrugged. “We don’t know,” he admitted. “The suspect isn’t co-operating so far and we’re still trying to get information from Uber, they’re also not co-operating the way we’d hope they might at the moment.” 

“But don’t worry, our boss is on that,” Callen added. “She’s got JAG lawyers arranging a Federal Warrant with a sympathetic judge and then Uber will have no choice but to turn over the information.”

Nelson looked relieved at that. “Is there anything else you can remember?” Sam added.

“We’d barely gotten fifty yards down the street when there was a stop sign,” Nelson said. “I saw the woman reaching out to me, turned to ask her what was going on and she stuck me in the neck with a needle. Next time I knew anything, I was already naked and tied to the bed where you found me.”

“And did she give you any indication of what she wanted?” Callen asked.

Nelson frowned and shook his head. “She was getting increasingly frustrated with me, I know that much. Whatever reaction she wanted, she wasn’t getting. But she never once spoke directly to me, just kept injecting me with drugs and trying to get a uh,” he paused and glanced towards the door. “A rise out of me,” he added with a faint blush.

“Don’t worry,” Sam told him. “We’ll be discreet.”

“Thanks,” Nelson looked relieved. “I’d prefer that Marcia not know about that part of it. Anyway, she kept muttering to herself and she had various things she tried – feathers, ribbons and talc.” Nelson pulled a confused face as he mentioned the last one. “Then she went off and came back with a glass of ice and I think that’s right about when you guys showed up.” 

Before they could say anything else, the door opened and Dr. Jackson was there with a tray of coffees. “I thought I’d go out and get the good stuff,” she announced.

The tension in the room lessened with her arrival. “Thanks Marcia,” Nelson said with a smile.

There was a brief lull as the cups were passed around and doctored to each person’s preference.

“So what happens next?” Nelson asked after they’d all sent a few minutes sipping in silence.

“We’re going to continue trying to identify this woman and we’re going to try interrogating her again as well,” Callen said.

At that point Callen’s phone rang and he quickly pulled it out. “Eric?” he walked out of the room to get some privacy.

“Callen,” the tech operator sounded excited. “We need you back in Ops right away.”

Callen stepped into an empty room. “Calm down Eric and explain.”

“We’ve ID’d her,” he said quickly. “The woman, we found her.”

Callen backtracked to Nelson’s room, telling Eric to hold on. He beckoned his partner out with a gesture, then went back to the empty room and pressed the button to put the call on speaker.

“All right Eric, Sam’s here too,” Callen said, looking at his partner.

“We’ve identified the woman,” Eric repeated. “She’s from Cuba.”

The partners exchanged a surprised look. “She’s Cuban?” Sam asked.

“No,” Eric said.

“Beale!” Callen growled, getting frustrated by the tech operator’s explanation, which was more confused than usual.

“She came to L.A. from Havana,” Kensi’s voice interrupted and Callen sighed in relief at the calmness she was projecting. “We still don’t know her real nationality yet, but we found her entering the country a couple of weeks ago.”

“Mr Callen,” Hetty’s voice interjected. “Please return to Ops immediately. We need to discuss our next steps.”

Sam exchanged a glance with his partner before speaking up. “What about protecting Nelson?”

“Agents Castor and Wilson will be with you momentarily,” Hetty replied. “They will take both Lt. Commander Nelson and Dr. Jackson to a safe house when he is discharged from hospital and they will stay there until this matter is resolved satisfactorily.”

“All right Hetty, once they’re here, we’ll be on our way,” Callen agreed. “We’d better brief Nelson on what’s happening first though.”

“Very well Mr Callen,” Hetty agreed and the call ended.

*

By the time they’d gotten back to Ops, the woman had been identified first as Sylvia Carroll and then by her real name, Katya Perov, KGB. Sam and Callen had exchanged dark looks at that, knowing that this had been a real disaster in the making and they were lucky to escape anything more serious.

Sentinel and Guide headed to the boat shed to interrogate Katya again, but had barely gotten past the introductions before the CIA were swooping in and scooping her up, an apologetic Hetty on their heels.

“I’m sorry Mr Callen, you know I am,” she told him as they stood around the table in the main part of the boat shed. “Unfortunately, this is out of my hands.”

Callen sighed. “I know Hetty.”

“Well, reports can wait until tomorrow,” she said in a rare moment of generosity. “I will ensure our guests are released from the safe house and returned home, now that the threat has passed.”

“Come on G,” his partner clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go home.”

Callen sagged for a moment, tired. “Yeah,” he agreed with a sigh.

They quickly collected their bags from Ops, with barely a wave goodbye to the rest of the team and then Sam had them in the Challenger and headed for home.

*

“You never did tell me you know,” Sam’s comment startled Callen out of the light doze he’d slipped into as they crawled through the traffic.

Sam gestured an apology when Callen turned to look at him, eyebrows raised. “This morning, at the hospital,” he clarified. “Something happened when Dr. Jackson touched you.”

“Oh.” Callen remembered that. “Yeah, I figured out why she was pinging my senses,” he explained. 

Sam looked at him. “And?”

“And,” Callen said with a sigh. “She’s pregnant.”

Sam’s surprised expression was pretty comical. “How do you know?” he asked.

Callen shrugged as best he could slouched in his seat. “I don’t know.”

“We’re going to have to find a way to test that,” Sam said.

Callen groaned. “How about we don’t, but say we did?” he suggested. 

Sam might look more like what people expected a Sentinel to be, but he was pure Guide and he loved finding ways to test Callen’s abilities, especially when something new emerged like this. Callen hated it, having no real interest in why or how his enhanced senses worked, as long as they didn’t bother him in the field.

“G!” Sam’s tone was way too whiny for Callen’s comfort.

“Seriously Big Guy, I fail to see how it could be of any use to me in the field,” Callen implored.

Sam sighed, but conceded defeat. “Don’t think I’m not going to document this or let the Sentinel Center know anyway,” he warned.

“Whatever,” Callen said more or less agreeably. “But no poking or prodding by them either.”

Sam nodded agreement and they settled into quiet once more, allowing Callen to relax and close his eyes again. 

*

Later that evening, Callen was stretched out naked on their bed, waiting for Sam, who was fiddling around at the cabinet where he kept various toys that he liked to use to tease Callen’s senses.

Callen watched Sam’s rear view appreciatively, reaching down to lightly stroke his cock, which was already hard and leaking. “Hurry up Sam,” he complained. “Or I’ll just finish without you.”

Sam turned round at that, hands full of ribbons. “As if,” he started to say, then stopped and stared at Callen. “That’s it!” he exclaimed.

Callen frowned. “What’s it?” he asked, letting go of his cock as he watched Sam’s expression lighten with discovery.

“Katya,” Sam said and Callen felt his arousal die away at the mention of the Russian.

“What about her?” He asked irritably, reaching for the sheet.

Sam came and dropped the ribbons on the bed, resting one knee next to Callen. “I figured out what she was doing.”

Callen groaned. “Really Sam? Now?”

“I know,” Sam said apologetically. “But seeing you laid out like that, it seemed familiar and I realized that was how we found Nelson and it clicked into place. Katya was trying to get some sort of Sentinel response out of him, not a sexual response.”

Callen sighed as he considered that. “Possibly,” he conceded. “But I don’t know why she’d do that, he isn’t a Sentinel. He doesn’t even have a single enhanced sense.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “Who knows what her motive was, maybe she’s just lost it. I guess we’re never going to find out now.”

Callen nodded. “So does that mean we can forget about her and go back to what we’re supposed to be doing?” he asked, lifting his hips meaningfully, so that the sheet slipped away again.

“I can do that,” Sam agreed.

Callen leered. “How about you just do me instead?”

Sam laughed at that and straddled Callen on the bed. “Never change G,” he murmured. “Never change.” And he lowered his head to Callen’s, taking his mouth in a kiss that started sweet but soon turned hot and passionate.

Callen moaned in his throat, too lost in his Guide swamping his senses to be coherent enough to respond verbally. But that was okay, he had all he wanted right here and nothing else mattered, not NCIS or the rest of the world, just Sam and the pleasure they were generating together.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm sure most people would expect Sam to be the Sentinel, but I think he is much more the Guide type and Callen the Sentinel type.


End file.
